WWW- The feds would crack down on the kind of cellphone hacking that exposed the private numbers of Paris Hilton’s A-list pals, under legislation to be introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer this week.
Schumer launched a campaign against the growing black market for cellphone logs yesterday, saying the practice of stealing and selling a list of owners’ calls should be prosecuted.
“Stealing someone’s cellphone records is a despicable act, and the fact that it can’t be prosecuted has to be changed,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.
“This isn’t something that enables financial fraud like identity theft – it’s personal.”
While the law now prosecutes people who use identity fraud to steal financial information, it does not cover phone records.
The legal loophole means companies can sell phone records over the Internet for a tidy profit.
One Web site offers a list of 100 calls for $110, completed within one to four hours of the customer’s request.
“The companies that do this say they are helping law enforcement,” Schumer said. “But when any prosecutor worth his salt needs access to the phone records, they go straight to the company with a subpoena.”
Schumer said he would propose legislation to criminalize the practice and called on the Federal Trade Commission to set up a special unit to investigate the new crimes.
The proposed law would make it a felony to obtain customer information from a telephone service provider by false pretenses, Schumer said.
To surreptitiously get cellphone records, snoops could use a source in a phone company or “pretexting,” where someone pretends to be the cellphone owner and calls customer service for the logs.
Data stealers have also begun to activate cellphone users’ Internet accounts – increasingly used to pay bills.
It was an Internet hacker who published private details from Paris Hilton’s Sidekick this February.
More than 500 big names, including Eminem, Luke Wilson, Lindsay Lohan and Ashley Olsen, saw their numbers float around cyberspace.
The cost to not-so-famous New Yorkers can also be high.
“Just by looking at a log of cellphone calls, anyone can figure out who your doctor is, whether you see a psychiatrist and your personal affairs,” Schumer said.